Mellel Newsletter – May 2015

WE’RE BACK

Hello there, and welcome to Mellel’s newsletter, the May Edition.

A while ago, we used to have a fairly active newsletter, peppered with gentle plugging of Mellel, sauced with a little opining about the state of the Mac union, all with a slice of self-deprecating humour, and the ever present grammatical errors. We’re not native speakers of English, just native.

Years came and went back looking despondent, and our newsletter fizzled, from a monthly to bi-monthly and then yearly or whenever we had a new version of Mellel ready.

Now, we’re back. We hope. Anyway, every fibber of our feeble marketing being tells us we’re prattling now – So, let’s get started.

A GREAT OFFER

To celebrate the end of spring, and because we’re so nice, we’ve decided to offer Mellel with a nice discount over the next two weeks. So, opening our Calender we can clearly see the offer valid to June 11 – which is the day after the Queen’s Birthday. More power to you, then.

We’re very modest, so we would not say that this is an offer you must not miss, but you really shouldn’t. Great price, great software, so-so marketing – what’s not to like?

WHAT’S COOKING

Mellel is developing and expanding. A while back we’ve introduced Mellel Lite – a more affordable (i.e., cheaper) version of Mellel. The Lite version is great, of course, but we felt something more is needed.

Our dream – a dream shared by many Mellel aficionados – was to allow Mellel users to work with it anywhere and throughout. For example, if you work with Mellel on your iMac or MacBook at work, you will naturally want to continue working with it on your iPad. Still more, many suffer with the tiresome task of exporting Mellel files to send them to people who do not have Mellel. Why not make it easier for them to read and review Mellel document even if they don’t have Mellel.

We are very conservative – sometimes, to our detriment – with future product announcements, but I can tell you that two major developments in those areas are coming soon.

In the near future, we believe you’ll be able to fix and change Mellel documents on your iPad, or send a Mellel document – as-is – for review and changes by someone who does not own Mellel. Once the document is sent back, you’ll be able to open it just as you would with any Mellel document… without losing formatting, auto-title or any of the other advanced features you have in your document.

It’s going to be quite awesome.

But enough about us. We’re fascinated by this subject (us), but as someone rather rudely put it to us recently, some people are also interested in other things! So, on to other business.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR APPLE

Apple’s iOS 7 new design got many people scratching their head. Many thought it was confusing, others believe it is plain ugly. It is, in a word, controversial. With iOS 7 Apple ditched the skeuomorphic design – that is, a design that mimic real-life objects – in favour of a flatter, simpler design.

Skeuomorphic GUI and design was much loved by the late Steve Jobs, with Scott Forstall, chief of mobile applications, as its most ardent proponent. After Jobs,Forstall got fired, and Jonathan Ives – Apple’s legendary designer of products – took over. iOS 7 was the result. “Bold but flawed” was MacWorld’s verdict. And this sounds just about right.

Not to belittle the woes of Android and Samsong designers, left unsure whether to copy the new GUI or not – our heart truly bleeds for them – the more important concern is how much of this will carry over to the Mac, and especially the expected announcement of Mac OS 10.10 with the upcoming June developers convention (WWDC). Rumours have it that 10.10 will look a lot more like iOS, though with some softened (or refined) design.

That remains to be seem, much like the speculations about an Apple Watch (really?!), an improved Apple TV (Really!), iOS 8 (Naturally), and other expected announcements. What’s quite clear is the convergence trail. No, iOS and the Mac OS will probably not converge completely. Not right now, that is. But a future of one OS used by machines of different sizes but similar functionality – from a cellular phone through a mid-side hand-held (what’s with an iPad or a Mini iPad with cellular capabilities?) to a notebook and ending with a desktop machine – seems almost unavoidable.

One left with the hope, though, that Apple does not reverse Microsoft. That is, the company from Redmond got what power desktop users want, and mistakenly thought this would transfer to all other devices. Apple will make a similar mistake thinking that this can work the other way around. You cannot write your thesis on an iPad. You really can’t.

AND FINALLY

Mellel is offered via the Mac App Store. If you’ve purchased Mellel there, help us help you by posting a short review. Small developers like us, even with a great application, can benefit enormously from a review.

The review does not have to be all positives and hallelujahs. It’s fine and constructive to also point to limitations or areas where we can do better (but do note: we cannot comment or respond to reviews…).